A lawsuit filed this week claims that Apple deliberately pushed iOS 4.0 to iPhone 3G and 3GS users, despite the fact that they knew it was buggy and slow, in order to improve sales of the iPhone 4. In a civil case brought at the County Court of San Diego in California, Bianca Wofford complains the upgrade made her phone virtually useless, and that Apple used the fact that users can't downgrade to an older version of the operating system to induce them to buy iPhone 4s. The case may bring closer scrutiny to Apple's restrictions on the ability of users to load the software they want on devices they own.

The crux of Wofford's complaint is that Apple urged users of older phones to upgrade, promising performance improvements that they knew iOS 4 could not deliver. According to the lawsuit [PDF], "Apple has falsely, intentionally and repeatedly represented that iOS 4, was a significant upgrade for the functionality of all iPhone devices, when in fact... iOS 4 is a substantial 'downgrade' for earlier iPhone devices and renders many of them virtually useless 'iBricks.'" The fundamental problem that Wofford and her lawyers highlight here is the fact that users can't downgrade without jailbreaking and voiding their warranties. "The iOS4 'upgrade' has essentially curtailed usefulness of the 3G/3GS devices," the lawsuit continues, "and left consumers, like Wofford, without any ability to restore the device to its prior acceptable functionality.

If the case is found in the plaintiff's favor, Apple will be facing false advertising charges and violation of California's Unfair Competition Act, and may end up having to pay restitution and damages. In addition, the court may order that Apple provide a way for users to downgrade, or protect jailbreakers' warranty writes. The filing also states that Wofford intends to ask a judge to grant class action status to her lawsuit in order to provide benefits for more iPhone 3G and 3GS users that suffered from the problem.

This suit may have merit. Wouldn't it be funny if Apple caused, by their own actions, jailbroken phones to be covered under their warranty. I hope they don't try to hide internal memos about what happens to older phones when they are upgraded ( it's ALWAYS the coverup!).

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Erm, I was under the impression that 3G users can downgrade whenever they like (except for baseband), and performance wise the 3GS was fine with 4.x anyway (mine definitely was until I upgraded to a 4 anyway)

If his 3G is too slow on 4.0 then he should go back to 3.x - nobody's forced him to update.

Erm, I was under the impression that 3G users can downgrade whenever they like (except for baseband), and performance wise the 3GS was fine with 4.x anyway (mine definitely was until I upgraded to a 4 anyway)

If his 3G is too slow on 4.0 then he should go back to 3.x - nobody's forced him to update.

That is a completely wrong statement "nobody forced 3G users to upgrade".

What if a 3G user had problems with their iPhone and had to restore, but because Apple stops signing old firmware's after a new version is released they have no choice but to upgrade or jailbreak their device (which if u hav an iPhone the only way is to have it is jailbroken IMHO, but that's not the point). The point is u have to upgrade when u restore or u have to use tinyumbrella to bypass Apples server and u must have your shsh blobs saved with cydia or locally on your computer or on Cydia's server. so think before you make statements that are no true at all. Ciao!

That is a completely wrong statement "nobody forced 3G users to upgrade".

What if a 3G user had problems with their iPhone and had to restore, but because Apple stops signing old firmware's after a new version is released they have no choice but to upgrade or jailbreak their device (which if u hav an iPhone the only way is to have it is jailbroken IMHO, but that's not the point). The point is u have to upgrade when u restore or u have to use tinyumbrella to bypass Apples server and u must have your shsh blobs saved with cydia or locally on your computer or on Cydia's server. so think before you make statements that are no true at all. Ciao!

Umm...actually, the 3G does not require SHSH blobs to perform restores. Apple implemented a "soft" SHSH check in the 4.0 software for the 3G. However, the SHSH check is not hardcoded into the phone like it is in later phones, and Apple put no such "soft" checks in earlier firmwares. As long as the user knows how to kick a device out of recovery mode, downgrading a 3G to 3.x is not very complicated.

The main point of the suit is that, for the average user, a downgrade is pretty much impossible.

I don't think they'll win. Software companies force upgrades all the time. They simply stop supporting older versions. We have a piece of major software that we are forced to upgrade every year. If we don't, we lose our 'good customer' standing and they stop support.

At a software company I worked at before, we told all our clients that if they weren't within two upgrades we wouldn't help them. That meant that many companies had to buy new servers to run the software.

has anyone had any luck complaining to att & apple enough, that they were able to maybe get the iphone4 for the discounted 199 price?

my gf phone was having problems and she took it to a att kiosk in the mall and they suggested she goes home plugs in and upgrades... so she did that.. well needless to say its horrible now. almost unusable.

im sure within 10 min i could google and figure out how to downgrade, but thats not the point. i shouldnt have to. i hope this goes class-action and something happens from it.. because its kind of BS and i never really thought of it until now, but yeah that definitely pushed a lot of sales towards the 4..if she was eligible for her upgrade shed be getting it right away but shes not so shes stuck for 6 more months on a phone thats barley useable.

3g might be 3 years old... but my gf just bought hers new last year... it'd be different if it was a 3 yr old phone not being sold.. that'd be like buying a beat up phone off ebay and complaining its not working well..